In a shocking incident, six children drowned in a pit filled with rainwater located on the outskirts of Bajghera village of Gurugram district, the police said on Sunday. The children had gone to take bath in the pond, which got filled due to the incessant rainfall in the national Capital region.
The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon between 3 and 4 pm. All the victims were residents of Shankar Vihar colony located near Bajghera village. The deceased have been identified as Piyush, Varun, Rahul, Ajit, Deva and Durgesh. All were aged between 8 to 13, the police said.
Soon after receiving information about the incident, a team from the Bajghera police station, civil defence, the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), and Fire Department reached the spot and fished out the bodies after three hours of operation. It is being said that the children may have gone to this pit for a bath and drowned.The police have also recovered the six pears of clothes and slippers of the victims from the spot.
Deputy Commissioner Gurugram, Nishant Yadav also reached the incident spot to take information about the incident.
"Preliminary probe suggested that all the victims had gone to this pit for a bath and drowned. A child who was also present at the spot raised an alarm and informed the kins of the victims after that the rescue teams reaches the spot and started the rescue operation," Yadav said.
Yadav said the administration had also installed a water pump to fish out water from the pit to search for any other body. "All the bodies have been recovered and shifted to the mortuary for an autopsy. The police have asked the residents if any other child is missing in their locality, Further probe is on," Deepak Saharan, DCP (west) said. Yadav said chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of the deceased. "This is a very unfortunate incident. We will identify such temporary ponds and drain their water so that such an accident does not happen in future," Yadav said.
Delhi-NCR has been receiving incessant rain for the past 3-4 days. The interactions of a western disturbance, which lies as a trough in mid and upper air with a deep trough of easterly wind at a lower level, is the reason behind post-monsoon rain, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.